A BRITISH Chancellor would be "biting our hands off" for an independent Scotland to keep the pound as its currency, claimed the First Minister.

Alex Salmond said that oil and gas reserves and the value of Scottish exports, such as whisky, meant an independent Scotland would benefit a "sterling area" of countries using that currency if it left the UK but retained the pound.

The SNP leader said some ex-Labour ministers, such as former City Minister Lord Myners, had suggested that "perhaps that currency arrangement wouldn't be wished by people in England".

However Mr Salmond stated: "Can I give a couple of good reasons why I think any Chancellor of the Exchequer would accept the idea of a currency union between Scotland and England?

"Firstly, oil and gas. Scotland would get the revenues from our geographical share of oil and gas."

Mr Salmond added that oil and gas also provides billions of pounds in "support to the balance of payments and therefore to a sterling area".

He went on: "Secondly, £24 billion of Scottish international exports including £4 billion of whisky exports.

"That's why I believe given the huge support supplied by Scotland to the sterling area, that any Chancellor of the Exchequer would be biting our hands off to get to such a sensible arrangement."

Mr Salmond made the comments as he hit back at claims from Labour that if Scotland left the United Kingdom but retained sterling it would be disadvantaged because key decisions would be taken in London.

Labour leader Johann Lamont argued that would leave Scotland with "political separation, yes, but with less economic control in order to serve the people of this country".

Ms Lamont pressed him on the issue at First Minister's Questions in the Scottish Parliament the day after the Scottish Government's proposals for an independence referendum were revealed.

Mr Salmond began the weekly exchange by saying he would be inviting the leaders of all Scotland's political parties to round table discussions on the issue.

This is something Ms Lamont has been calling for and she said: "We always welcome a sinner who repents, and someone who pays attention to others within the chamber.

"I'm absolutely delighted with that news and I believe it is in the interests of the people of Scotland we set to that task together."

However Ms Lamont went on to state that "in his version of independence the First Minister conceded significantly this week that the Bank of England would be the lender of last resort".

She questioned the impact that could have on policy in Scotland, asking: "Will that mean John Swinney not only brings his budget to this chamber, he has to go to the Bank of England to ask permission on how much he can borrow, what his fiscal policies will be and how much he can spend?"

The Labour leader said: "The First Minister told us this week he is an avowed Anglophile. Is he not taking it a bit too far?"

Mr Salmond said that in an independent Scotland the Finance Secretary would "have the ability to set our own taxes, to govern our own spending," and could "for example at the present moment to invest in capital investment to revive the Scottish economy".

He told MSPs: "We're talking about monetary policy. I heard her deputy leader on the radio this morning say that if Scotland has a monetary union and the Bank of England is lender of last resort, then Scotland would lose the ability to set interest rates."

However Mr Salmond added: "I have news for the Labour Party - politicians lost the ability to set interest rates on May 6 1997, when Gordon Brown declared the Bank of England independent.

"It was that separation of monetary policy controlled by the MPC and the Bank of England and fiscal policy, controlled by the Chancellor, that perhaps Johann Lamont wants to catch up on."

Ms Lamont said that meant "the reality is the First Minister is telling us he is content to have the key decisions that will impact on people's mortgages, savings and pensions made by a foreign bank with no remit to look at Scotland's conditions and circumstances".

Mr Salmond told his Labour rival there were 67 countries in the world that were using another nation's currency "either in formal or informal monetary unions at the present moment".

He added: "That doesn't mean they're not independent countries, that just means they're in monetary unions."

However, Ms Lamont said Scots needed to have "confidence in their pensions, their mortgages, and their future."

She continued: "Isn't it the truth that the SNP push for separation isn't about people's savings, isn't about people's mortgages, isn't about people's pensions, it's about the First Minister's blind faith that it will be better because he says so?"

The Labour leader asked the First Minister: "Why is he prepared to take unnecessary risks with people's mortgages, their savings, their pensions in the midst of the worst economic global crisis since the 1930s for no good reasons, because what it will create is political separation, yes, but with less economic, in order to serve the people of this country?"

Mr Salmond insisted, however: "Scotland would emerge as an independent country with the sixth highest wealth per head in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)."

He continued: "That in itself is not the argument for independence, the argument for independence is self-determination.

"But given we'd be the sixth most prosperous country in the developed world, most people in Scotland will have some degree of confidence in Scotland's ability not just to survive but prosper as a socially just, economically progressive society."